Tibori, Zoltán Szabó

3 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Élet és Irodalom - Hungary | 16/07/2012

Romanian constitution the cause of power struggle

Commenting on the power struggle between the government and the president in Romania, journalist Zoltán Szabó Tibori points out in the left-liberal weekly Élet és Irodalom that the Romanian constitution paves the way for conflicts between the prime minister and the head of state: "In Romania a so-called semi-presidential system is enshrined in the constitution. This means that executive power resides not just with the prime minister but also to a certain extent with the head of state. The president can participate in government meetings and even chair them, he oversees and heads the most important secret services and, not least, also has considerable say in the area of foreign policy and the social balancing of interests. The Romanian system is a hybrid form of the presidential system in France and the parliamentary system in Germany. … In this system conflicts between the prime minister and the president are pre-programmed even when they both belong to the same political camp. In the case of cohabitation [when the president and the parliamentary majority belong to different parties], the system is practically unworkable and can lead to months of paralysis."

Count Dracula as a tourist attraction

Count Dracula, the most famous vampire in literary history and the creation of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker, was named after the notoriously cruel General Vlad III Draculea (1431-1476). Many Americans travel half the world to visit the ancient Bran Castle, which stands surrounded by fog in the Romanian region of Wallachia. The newspaper's Romania correspondent Zoltán Tibori Szabó reports: "A narrow, dark stairway leads to the castle's dungeons. Some tourists swear that they were touched by ghosts on the way down. The local children like to play the role of 'ghosts', the bus driver tells us. In the middle of the family crypt the Count, who reputedly fed on blood, lies in his coffin. Suddenly the master of the house sits up. All these props are the product of the Dracula industry which has surged as the result of the tourism boom. The tourists have got what they wanted for their money and run back upstairs in a panic, where a feast of sausages awaits them."

Romanian workers in the EU

Western European countries estimate that around four million Romanians currently work – legally or illegally – in the EU, many of them in Hungary. Like several other EU states, Hungary is now considering introducing provisional regulations for Romanian workers to prevent a massive influx. Zoltan Szabo Tibori comments: "Romanian workers are qualified and willing to do much more overtime than other Europeans. They are even more hard-working than the Polish, and top the list in this respect. Most Western European countries fear that once Romania has joined, even more Romanian workers will pour into Western Europe. However experts say these fears are unfounded, and that those who wanted to come to the West did so long ago."